Trip Reports – Nov 2017

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Moraine road in good shape. -5C at 10am and only eight cars in the lot. Skate lanes freshly worked on – two machines drove up together and returned to make the skate lanes great. Classic tracks still in good shape used VR45 with good success.

On November 28, Chuck reported that he had skied the Pipestone Trails and that they were quite good. Today, we had a chance to check that out. As Chuck advised, the trails and I believe that it is only the #20 has been groomed/packed.It looked like 4 or 5 cm of fluffy white snow had accumulated since the report and skiing was lovely. It lightly snowed while we were there and made our experience even more enjoyable.

Actually Frank, it seemed that all trails in the Pipestone had been packed and groomed before we got there, but we only skied the #20 Pipestone Loop and a bit of #22 Drummond. #22 Merlin looked good at the junction, but I suspect #21 Hector might have been a little thin down near the corrals.
Glad that you enjoyed another 4 or 5 cms of fluffy white snow on top of what we skied. It seems hard to convince Bob to go on anything until it is trackset, and busy!

Light snow from noon until 2:30 and -3oC. Great grip and glide with Swix purple. Ski trackers groomed the skate lane and rolled Lower Telemark. Expect new fluffy snow in the tracks Saturday. Very good conditions.

Lake Louise – my first “ski-joring” trip of the season with my human on classic skis along part of the Bow River Loop and around the campground thanks to fresh track-setting yesterday – yay! We went south from the campground bridge on the east side of the river, crossed over onto the west, then around the campground. The river tracks were firm and fast and a little thin in spots, but the campground snow was much better (-4C, Extra Blue -1 to -7). My other human skated 1A, skate lane good and tracks fast he said, and at 12.30 pm, the groomers were setting out to refresh the skate lane. Both humans skied down Tramline and said it was fast and fun (too bad I can’t go with them at that trail!).

Well, while we did not ski the area, on Tuesday we drove to the trailhead just to check things out. It was grim. Very grim. We are staying in Canmore for a week and have accomplished Moraine Lake, Great Divide and around Lake Louise today. Also, checked out Pipestone for a possible adventure tomorrow. Would recommend the drive as conditions were much better. Was snowing quite heavily at the Chateau at 3:30 so if grooming takes place tomorrow should be a great day.

Elk Pass / Blueberry was downright skookum last night.
Also, one can get to the couch site via ‘west meadows’ for something different.
Still only boot-top ski penetration off track. Freek’n beautiful in there. Such a nice change from the usual (dense forest).
Starts off about 100m down Blueberry, after the short hill and some right turns.
Advise you google-earth it before negotiating it by headlamp. 🙂
Good moon phase fthis weekend, by the way.

Lake Louise: Moraine Lake Road return, Lower Tramline, East track of Bow River Loop and Campground Loop to the Village:
-6C at 10:30 am and -1C at 3:00pm. MLR was busy today with a large school group, but the hard base, excellent snow and track set held up very well to the traffic. VR45 was marginal to Fairview junction and perfect to the turn around. Glide down was fast enough to call for caution on the steeper pitches. Lower Tramline was newly track set and also offered fast glide. Bow River loop on east side of Bow had track set in thin new snow. Had never been to the Campground Loop, so went exploring and found new grooming and tracks waiting for the first skiers. Returned on west side of Bow Trail to the Village and don’t recommend it until there is a lot more snow.

Elk Pass – Eight members of the Norseman Ski Club had a wonderful day skiing to Elk Pass and back. As John A reported, conditions around the start from the parking lot up to the big hill were helped by the fresh corduroy grooming. Things improved the further we went and from the T-junction to Elk Pass the trail was trackset and the snow conditions were good. VR 45 and 50 worked well. Great ski on the way back along the same route. When we reached the Fox Creek junction, we decided to give it a go. Conditions were a bit icy. New snow is definitely needed on this section. All in all, another beautiful day on the mountains!

Elk Pass – Arriving at the parking lot at about 10AM we found the tracksetter’s truck with an empty trailer and fresh corduroy starting up the hill. We were the second group to head out on the new grooming, so we had a relatively soft surface to work with. The fresh grooming included the Elk Pass trail up to the Blueberry Hill junction. From that point there was tracksetting up to the pass and Patterson was fully tracked. Hydroline was still skier set. The tracksetter had headed up Blueberry Hill, but we did not follow. We also did not explore the west end of Tyrwhitt. The tracksetter was still up Blueberry on our return, so we don’t know if there was additional tracksetting back towards Hydroline or further along to Tyrwhitt. Hopefully the live grooming report will clarify things.

From the lower Hydroline junction on, the snow was fine grained and seemed pretty deep. But the snow on the beginning section up & down the big hill was still pretty thin, and rather coarse grained with a hard crust just below the soft surface from the grooming. Returning down the big hill was OK at about 1PM. But, in the absence of some new snow, I would expect it to get scraped off in a day or two, so that on the weekend it might begin to get … interesting!

Overall it was a good day to be out on Elk Pass, with snow temps at about -4C and air around -2C. We had reasonable kick (and no clumping up higher) using VR50. But another group reported being OK on VR45.

HORRIFIC is how I would describe the skiing at Mt. Shark yesterday. It is sheer ice over fresh snow with ice and rock bumps. I turned back after the first hill and walked back to the parking lot hoping the rest of the group would do the same. A couple in our group that went on injured themselves. The parking lot is also icy where I fell just standing still.

Maybe I should get someone else to choose my destinations?? But curiosity and a sense of “public service” sent me to Boom Lake today. There a few cm of fresh snow was lovely and most welcome, but not quite enough to properly cover up the very rough, icy base. Conditions fair to good with occasional hazards, like that tree sticking out at face height near the bottom, which you really don’t want to run into!
Three guys on wide AT skis were ahead of me, I don’t think they had any problems. No one else was around.
Perhaps my biggest issue was being terrorised by whiskey jacks at the lake! I was the only one up there, so they all gathered around and silently but insistently demanded my lunch. I resisted, with only the slightest twinge, and left not a single crumb.

Due to recent rainfall at Dawn Mountain, we regretfully have to postpone Opening Day Weekend, from Saturday, December 2, until Saturday December 9 – pending we get more snow in the following weeks. Stay tuned to our website, as well as our Club’s Facebook page, for further updates. Another email will be sent to confirm opening day, early next week. In the meantime, the Chalet will continue to be open Monday to Friday and everybody is welcome to use the Upper Trails.

Update on Dog Loop Meeting:
On a recent membership survey, members of the Golden Nordic club expressed an interest in pursuing a dog friendly loop at Dawn Mountain.
The Golden Nordic Club Board of Directors have agreed to consider, in good faith, proposals for a dog friendly trail.
As the director responsible for this initiative, I am seeking other like-minded members to gather information, discuss, and forward such a proposal for consideration to the Board of Directors.
I am scheduling a meeting on December 7 at 8pm at Whitetooth Brewery for any member interested in helping out with this proposal. Since over half of the respondents to the Survey were behind such an effort, I am hopeful it will not be difficult to find folks eager to assist with this.
If you are not sure, come on down anyway and perhaps you can be convinced to help out.
With thanks,
Steve Wyer

Lake Louise: Great Divide (GD) to Lake O’Hara road return and Lower Tramline to the Village:
Nervously changed to waxless skis this morning after hearing about the snowfall warning at Lake Louise – they weren’t necessary! -6C at 10:00 am and -1C at 3:00pm. A light snow fell all day with intensity increasing by 2:00 pm. Approximately 2 cm new snow accumulating in 5 hours. After the warm spell, the base and set tracks of GD are hard packed to the shelter. From the shelter to O’Hara road, GD was wind blown with no set tracks evident. Glide was very good on the hard packed sections of GD.
Lower Tramline to Louise Creek was double track set with good glide. Below Louise Creek only skiers left track was skier tracked with good glide to the Bow. We skied Bow River Trail on good snow with no tracks.
Nice to see Helen Read and her friends again.

From what I have heard, the Akamina Parkway will not open this winter. Damage to the road, guardrails and ground stability has been extensive. I had the Cameron Lake Cabin booked for three nights in March but was told I would not be able to go in there. Hopefully next winter.

The tracks that Helen ran into on Blueberry came from a bear that sure gets around ! The Shell Oiltimers skied Pocaterra/Tyrwhitt/Elk Pass/Hydroline/Lookout today in -3 C weather. Parking at the Hwy 40 access to Pocaterra the trail is littered with debris with a few centimetres of fresh snow on top of an icy crust. As you progress up past Whiskey Jack to Tyrwhitt, the snow improves and a good skier track exists. However, the grizzly seems to like skiers as he walked the same route turning to go up Lookout trail ( and then on to Blueberry ? ). He was a bit inconsiderate walking in the track rather than the middle. Lookout conditions are fantastic and it must have escaped the rain on the weekend. It was snowing hard when we left at 3 pm so hopefully there will be sufficient snow soon to trackset again.

O’Hara end of Great Divide (GD) -5 @ 9:40. Icy pavement getting out of car. Wind had blown into the Sunday grooming so we tried our best to skier set a track but they were not “straight as arrow Tonto”. Met some Calgary Outdoor Ski Club folk heading in our direction once on top of big hill and enjoyed short hello with Keith Bagnall. The dog sled groomer went by with his machine and by the time we got to Lk Louise end, the two dog sleds were taking off at joyous pleasure. Our ski back had a nice gentle rhythm and unlike Mary, we saw NO bear tracks. Am guessing the groomer might get onto the Divide but not sure if they wait until the dog sleds depart for the day? Snowing all 3.5 hours out and good drive home except for those cars less unfortunate to get pulled over by the Sheriff.

Thought we’d give Elk Pass and Blueberry a try today. It was a pleasant -4C at the start and -1C when we finished. We used a combination of V45/50 and it worked quite well. There must have been a strong wind last night, as all trails had needle debris, so our descents were slower than usual. The first km out was quite skied up with no tracksetting visible. After Hydroline Jct., tracks were adequate. It was here that I noticed unusual tracks in the snow going up the middle of the trail, which looked suspiciously like grizzly tracks (five toes, long claws). By the time we started up Blueberry, all other tracks died away, and only a trail of bear prints continued up the hill, walking right on the set tracks! We skied up for about a km. before deciding that if a bear was at the top, we really didn’t want to meet him (having put away our bear spray for the season). So we skied down, then up to Elk Pass, back down Elk to Patterson, where we took a little exploratory jaunt, before heading back to the parking lot. So, don’t put away your bear spray just yet. There’s bears in them thar hills!

Panorama – really crummy conditions (ice and shallow snow) but if you are in Invermere this is a nearby option. Bring your old skis. A least there are no trail fees in effect. But it’s snowing so I am hoping things improve soon 🙂

Peter Lougheed Provincial Park – Nov 27,2017
Started from the Boulton Bridge parking lot and skied up Boulton Creek trail which had about 2 cm of new snow. It was a bit crusty (from the frozen rain) under the new snow. Conditions improved on Fox Creek with more new snow. Continued up Elk Pass to the Blueberry Hill junction which had about 5 cm of new snow. Broke trail up Blueberry Hill – the top had 10 cm of new snow – the descent was nice in the powder. Continued to the top of Elk Pass and then onto Tyrwhitt – the descent was slower than normal with the new snow and no previous skiers today. Finished up by going down Whiskey Jack. Overall conditions were very good and better higher up. The new snow bonded well to the underlying crust.

Chateau – Fairview – Moraine Lake Road – Upper Tramline – Deer Lodge, Peyto – Great Divide – Upper & Lower Tramlines to the Village.
Much work has been done on Fairview. It has been groomed/packed up to about a half kilometer from the big hill with the warning sign and where it splits for the downhill. Five of the six trees that were across the trail are now gone. The work was so well done that I could not see where they were before. After that the trail is as it was before:snowshoed and skier tracked. The remaining tree is on this long downhill and there is a detour around the tree that requires some agility. The remaining ungroomed area may be difficult to be accessed by a snowmobile as there are open creek spots still remaining. It would be nice to get that last tree out of there but I empathize with the problems of removing it. Peyto improved dramatically with the snow that has fallen on it over the weekend. As mentioned previously the trail had been groomed, if only roughly and needed a topping of fresh snow to make it more manageable. Lake Louise was very enjoyable today and conditions seemed to get better as the day wore on.

Sunday skied Great Divide Trail. Started around 10:15 in rain /snow .
Skier tracked trails and 5cm of snow on skating track. The dog sled lane is now in place. We met the dog sled groomer on our return trip.
Skintecs worked reasonable well with some icing. Lots of skiers out on the trail including two sit skiers from the National Para Nordic ski team who blew by us like we were standing still. Sigh ?
We met the groomers on our return trip two machines, the large Alpina pulling the groomer and a smaller machine with the roller. The groomers STILL drive too fast leaving a shallower track and the tracks sidewalls not completely set up.
Finished just after noon in the rain.

Very good snow pack up the road. No rocks until you get into the trees before the Robertson Glacier outwash plain. Once out of the trees things improve greatly. The steep trail up to the meadows is in good condition and has been well skier packed. Once getting into the meadows there is excellent snow cover. At least 3 feet up the Pass. The base is wet and there is about ankle deep ski penetration.

The warm temperatures and new snow are creating very good base snow conditions and excellent touring conditions with not too much ski penetration.
You can ski where ever there is snow.

At night on the Pass there was moderate snowfall with dropping temperatures below freezing. At the parking lot it was a mix of snow and sleet coming down at a moderate rate. Temperatures at the parking lot at 6:30 pm were above zero. Great skiing on Burstall with lots of powder.

I pulled into Mount Shark parking lot and was shocked to see there was no snow on the Watridge Lake trail for the first couple hundred of meters. It looks like last weeks snow did not get packed and blew away and melted in the a big rain. I have never seen rain like this at Shark at this time of year. This was a major climate change melt down compared to last week snow storm. I decided to split to Burstall Pass instead.

It will take 12 to 15 cm of snow to fix things up at Shark. It likely started snowing again after dark.

We braved the terrible looking weather and skied Elk Pass and Blueberry hill this morning. It was soft snow and very fun on our waxless skies. I watched my better half glide effortless all day long on his fancy skin skis while I had to try pretty hard to glide on my fish scales. There was groomed track most of the way and no rocks. The conditions were very good for what we were expecting. It was well worth going out today. There were several others out on the trail either coming or going to the Elk hut. This just proves don’t turn around until you actually get to the trail head and see what the weather and snow are like. I often find that the weather up at Upper Kan Lakes is very different than by Fortress and even Pocaterra sometimes.

Decent ski at MLR today on my waxless fish scales. Plenty of classic and skate skiiers there today. Sticky snow. Other reported that blue wax was working for them. Started sleeting at around 12:30p. Overall, great day and glad we made the trip.

Miles decided to turn around instead of skiing at PLPP today. While I can certainly see the wisdom of this decision, we made “the other choice”, in part because my friends Cathy and Dave were coming from Canmore while I was driving from Calgary and, once in K-Country we had no way of communicating about any change of plans.

As Miles pointed out, it was spring-like at the Highway 40 turn-off. Things did get better and the temperature was +3 at the Elk Lakes parking lot. I opted for my $80 Peltonen fish-scales and that was the wise choice. Cathy did the same while Dave futzed about with wax every half-hour or so.

We did make it up to Elk Pass, continuing on through Tyrwhitt until the trail started to descend to the Lookout Junction. At that point, it was starting to “precipitate” a bit more strongly and we decided to turn back. We skied Hydroline, which had barely been used and returned down the big hill, which was warmed up enough to be slow on the descent.

By the time we got to the cars, we were soaked and glad to have seat heaters. Still, it was a wonderful way to cover 18 km or so before the Grey Cup.

I decided to check out the Elk Pass area trails today, bringing my waxless skin skis in light of the forecast warmer temps. Heading down Highway 40 it was high overcast and warm, around +12C. By about Pocaterra it was +8 and raining steadily, so we turned round and headed home. We assumed that few, if any of the trails would have been high enough to have escaped the rain.

Miles,
You probably made the right choice. We arrived at Elk Pass parking lot around 3 pm to a full Vancouver-style downpour. Using Klister (I know) we soldiered on up to Hydroline before double-poling downhill under the power lines. The snow was surprisingly forgiving of the steady rain and we were able to finish up via Fox Creek just before dark. Fun, but soaked to the skin.

Skied into Elizabeth Parker Hut at O’Hara yesterday on fairly icy but still fine conditions. Skied out today in brand new fluffy snow. Very warm, used violet but probably needed klister. There is excellent coverage with a whole lot of new snow after this weekend.. Skier set (with lots of snow shoe tracks messing it up!)

I enjoyed my ski up to the lookout in PLPP so much on Wednesday, I decided to return with my husband and son. We started off Highway 40 and got onto Pocaterra. What a difference a few days makes! Gone was the corduroy and grooming, and in its place, 10 cm of fresh powder. Mixed with warm temperatures, we struggled a bit with clumping (even with waxless skis that had been freshly hot glide waxed,) and my husband’s bindings kept freezing up. The other challenge was with snow balling up between our boots and skis. Things were glorious on the lookout trail though and our 8-year old enjoyed the fun descent on downhill skis after a tow up.

The great divide lives up to its name. Conditions were great at the top, with some fresh powder on slightly icy tracks, but plenty of grip with waxless skis. The hill was groomed nicely though if you stated in the tracks on the way down there were two large divots from crashes you withdraw want to avoid. The tracks got nicer in Yoho to the parking lot, though it was slightly more icy, but very manageable. Overall a great ski!

With all the reports of rain on Thursday, we were a little on edge as to conditions at Lake Louise. Happily there was some new snow on top when we arrived. Peto we were surprised to see was what appeared to be just groomed but perhaps because the snow was wet, there was a lot of clumps of snow and uneveness. On one of the long downhills one of us walked down while the other side stepped. The trail needs more snow as vegetation is still coming through. With the grooming, the trail will be in great shape for the next snowfall. The Great Divide had its skiff of snow and we met a groomer starting out as we reached the road. The Tramline had its share of new snow as well. What damage that the rain did showed up in the base of the trail. The trail would collapse slightly under foot causing a skier to lose balance slightly and it could even cause a fall. Be careful the next couple of days, please. Looked over at Fairview from the Chateau and both snowshoers and skiers had been on it, at least at that point. I looked up the hill from there and saw a groomer but I did not know what he was doing save that he was on the trail. There was also grooming at the end of the day on the trail that parallels the river before the bridge.

When in doubt, Moraine Lake Road.
I arrived at 11:30 AM to find the track setter just starting to set the two outbound tracks. Score! It was 0 degrees C and even the old tracks looked pretty good. The conditions were just about perfect the whole way, with the outside right track running particularly fast. The ascent was fast, and the descent was lightening fast, but no hard surfaces. My waxless Crown bases worked better than ever. The groomer had completed two passes in the skating lane by the time I was heading down the big hill, and he was heading up to set the inbound tracks. I expect the conditions to be excellent on the weekend. A truly great day.

Ribbon Creek-Village Trails -Nov 22
It was warm and windy today at the Ribbon Creek trails. I wanted to give my Skintec’s a good test in what would have been awful conditions for waxing. The skis worked great! I did several loops of Terrace, Kovach and Aspen trails. Each time around, the snow got softer and the number of thin spots with rocks, dirt or slush got bigger. For the most part, however, the trails still had good coverage and the recent grooming was holding up. It was +12C when I left and the forecast for tomorrow is for more of the same.

Fabulous ski day in Peter Lougheed.
We probably had the best conditions for the ski up to the lookout that I’ve ever had! We had fresh untouched corduroy the whole way up/down, it was grippy, soft enough to not be icy, and absolutely lovely to descend.

We started high up from the parking lot below Highwood Pass on Hwy 40, skied along Pocaterra (fresh grooming,) to the junction with lookout. We were definitely the first group up to the lookout on the fresh groomed trail.

From the lookout, we skied back down the same way and then continued across Tyrwhitt to Elk Pass. Tyrwhitt had also been freshly groomed but it needs more snow. Lots of twigs showing. Also lots of tree debris. Still, better than skiing on rocks, and overall, very skiable.

From Elk Pass, the skiing got more challenging because the grooming was covered under fresh snow (which had frozen overnight and become crusty.) We made it down but there were a few scary moments on the steeper hills. Thank god for metal edges! We were also the first skiers to come down from the pass in the new snow.

We didn’t see other fresh ski tracks coming down from Elk Pass until we got to the junction with Patterson. Maybe others had turned around here or headed up the Hydroline? We finished our ski at the Elk Pass parking lot where we had a second vehicle stashed. (after skiing a loop around Fox Creek, which needs more snow and is a mess.)

Overall, fabulous day, but it was warm (practically t-shirt weather) and everything is melting. It will freeze overnight and I’d expect tomorrow morning to be quite icy.

We skied Great Divide today starting at 12:30. Air temp was 2-3 °C the whole time. We went out 6.5 k to the top of the hill. There was tons of snow and the skier-made tracks were decent most of the way. Our Crown waxless bases worked well. Too deep and thick for skating. I think it will withstand the two warm days just fine, and it will be awesome once groomed. All in all, a great time in very comfortable weather.

I parked in the slush ponds at Nakiska, had a slightly challenging time getting to Skogan Pass trail (right past a big “closed” sign :O ), and skied up to Hummingbird Plume Lookout. I hadn’t planned to go that far, but my skis just kept going…….
Skogan Screamer was fair to poor to “why am I here???”, but beyond the Marmot Basin junction it was much better! Fair to quite reasonable with tree debris occasional rocks and dirt, and lots of big deer hoof divots in the soft snow. I fixed a few of them. There was recent grooming all the way up to the lookout, and even some tracksetting, and I had the trails all to myself. Parts of the descent were almost fun!
Until I got back to Skogan Screamer, which was marginal on the way up, worse now because of melting, but also some other skiers who apparently gave up and walked down 🙁
That was a surprisingly good outing, but the snow is melting fast.

First ski at CNC today +10C
Went out on Skintecs. Stadium was packed and groomed.
Out Banff Trail to junction 4 just past the first bridge (1 km from stadium) was thin with pavement showing under tracks. If I had turned around, I’d be saying don’t go.
After that conditions improved markedly. Good tracks out Banff and Meadowview.
Best way to ski Meadowview is to come at it from the far end as the hills are a bit sketchy. Not sure what the conditions will be like with the continued warmth but it was worth the effort.

I got on to Fairview at about 12:45 pm as I noticed that someone had broken trail warlier. I found out later that a group had snowshoed it and then I presume that others had followed on skis. There are probably two major reasons why this trail has not been trackset. The first (as mentioned previously in other reports) is that there are around six trees that have fallen across the trail at various points. Do the tracksetters have to wait until there is enough snow to cover these trees or will a crew go out to the trail and cut a path through them ? As it is now, there are small detours around each tree. The second is that at least one spot, the creek can be seen through the snow.This hazard alone will scare most people away from skiing the trail. However, if you do try it, you will enjoy a great trail with good snow conditions Be prepared to hold your poles up high as the sides of the trail are high too through the lack of grooming

Thanks Howard for your excellent timely report on Fairview (F/V). We are all anxious to get on it, but the reports of several trees across the trail will keep me off it for awhile longer. Looking at my past ski records, in the last 11 years, the soonest I have ever been on F/V was Dec 5th and 7th in 2015 and 2016, but usually not until mid Dec. three other years of those remaining 9 years.

PLPP Elk Pass & Blueberry Hill Nov 21
Temperature was between -4C and -2C. Skier trackset to Elk Pass in about 20cm of powder. Four of us broke trail up Blueberry Hill in about 30cm of powder. There was so much pow that I could ski down the uptrack the entire way without going too fast. It was probably the slowest descent I’ve ever made down Blueberry! At Elk Pass there was fresh roller grooming on Tyrwhitt. The Live Grooming map shows lots of new grooming on the E side of PLPP, but it’s not listed in the Trail List.

Moraine Lake Road today accessed by Upper Tramline from Chateau parking. Returned to Village on Lower Tramline. Used a VR45 wax today.Very good snow conditions and trackset to MLR turn around. Softer snow made for mellow gliding on descent. MLR tracks below Fairview junction were worse for wear at 1:00 pm. Lower Tramline had very good trackset to Louise Creek and was in fair condition to the Bow. No wind today – see Ray’s report for temperatures. Snowing lightly at 3:00 pm.

If anyone is heading west to Silver Star – Sovereign Lake I can vouch for the excellent conditions on the entire 100K trail network. Many Calgary, Canmore and area skiers make the trek west to get in what most consider to be the best early season skiing anywhere. Currently there is over a 100cm base and all trails are packed and groomed daily. Early season dual area passes are available.

Thanks to HeatherD for the great beta that the Park’s Tracksetter had dropped off the roller at the trailhead yesterday.
Once past the thin snow on the paved road, Don passed us dragging the roller.
See what happened when we got to the campground:https://1drv.ms/a/s!AhVZXBE7vMV7iESRhL7Uugm-rstG
What a great day!

Great Divide – took some friends here for their first ski of the season. Great conditions on new tracksetting. The recent snowfall has covered most of the branches/twigs that had been sticking up through the trackset. Started at 10:30am at -6C, finished 2:00pm at -2C. Mostly no wind. Dogsled lane was being groomed as we finished. Hope the coming chinook does not do too much damage.

Hwy 40 into Upper Pocaterra/Tyrwhitt to picnic table. As last Friday, we skier tracked until we encountered James in the Pisten Bully who was packing DOWN Pocaterra from W-J. We skier tracked to Tyrwhitt picnic table (30 cms on my ruler) where we had lunch. Ran into Pam and Charlie on our return in those stunning meadows. (Pretty impressive when your Dr’s nurse recognizes you by voice before she saw me). Met James again coming up Tyrwhitt and by the time we reached Pocaterra/Whiskey Jack junction, James had magically transitioned Pocaterra into beautiful corduroy! We enjoyed his labour of love until Packers junction (temp was zero) then ret’d back up to Hwy 40. Praying it doesn’t rain. Great seeing you on the job again James!

Skogan Pass – Trail head to Pass in 5”+ powder following 2 yesterday’s skinny skier tracks. Karate kid “wax-on” VR 45 up on my antique 65mm 3/4 edge Karhu’s. No Herrinbone or stickage! “Wax-off” at Pass to enjoy the volumous powder on return until I met up with Piston Bully Jeff grooming in (to preserve base) just above Ruthies jnct. Steller Day when the dog’s too tired to jump into the back seat.

Headed to Kananaskis Village to ski the newly groomed trails this morning. I left the car at 11 under blue skies and -4C and found myself the first skier on the tracks on Terrace. I can’t say that I can claim first tracks since clearly the deer had a hay-day on fresh groomed snow as their tracks zigzagged across much of Terrace, and again on Aspen 🙂 Snow was in good condition as I headed down Terrace, popped down towards Ribbon and back up again – the snow was slower than I’d hoped where it hadn’t been groomed, continued on the smaller Aspen/Kovach loop, back up the full length of Aspen and back to the village. Back to the car by 12:45 after a very enjoyable ski and +3 degrees. The grooming was good with minimal rocks, tracksetting was intermittent where snow depth allowed and my only complaint about the snow was that as I ascended up Kovach in the direct sun, the snow was balling up on my waxless skis, as it had clearly done to the person ahead of me as well. In the shade and everywhere else conditions were good. But as I returned to the car the snow on the trees was turning to water and I suspect that the conditions will deteriorate quickly if the warm conditions that are forecast come true.

Skied Banff Trail at CNC pm Monday afternoon. Recent snow has improved conditions enough that they were able to trackset the south side of the trail (for the downhill return trip). Near the meadow lodge there’s tracks on both sides. Under the bridges are still thin.

The Great Divide was trackset again today.
I decided to try it from the Lake O’Hara end. When I got to the trailhead at around 2, there was only one other set of ski tracks which turned around after a few hundred feet so I was skiing on the undisturbed snow from last night for about ten minutes. That’s when the skidoo pulling the roller passed me. By the time I got to the divide, he had made 3 or 4 passes and roller packed the whole thing. No sooner had I gotten back to my car when 2 more machines showed up! One pulling the tracksetter and the other grooming the skating lane. Too bad I had to be back in Banff for a meeting, otherwise I’d have gone back out to enjoy the fresh trail. Should be great for any early birds tomorrow morning!

West Bragg Creek, Nov 20
Apparently a powerful, warm Chinook was blowing at West Bragg Creek on Sunday, while it was snowing elsewhere to the west. It cooled overnight and by morning 3 cm of fresh snow blanketed the trails. I got out for a loop on the Crystal Lines, Loggers and Sundog. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the base on those trails survived the Chinook and were nicely refreshed with the new snow. There may be another few centimetres of snow overnight, so Tuesday should be good. Then, we’ll be dealing with another warm blast of Chinook for several days.

Hi, My husband and I met Helen on Moraine. The conditions were ace. We only had trackset going up but the crew had downhill trackset by the time we came down. Just perfect. We also went down to the Lodge so have set a trail for others. The wax – purple – worked perfectly too. Lovely day.

Peter Lougheed Provincial Park – Nov 20, 2017
Started from Boulton Bridge parking lot which had 20 cm of new snow. Broke trail up Boulton Creek and then met 4 skiers coming down Fox Creek which made the going much easier. Then went up Elk Pass and broke trail part way up Blueberry Hill. There was 25 cm of snow on the picnic table at the Elk Pass Blueberry Hill junction! At the top of Elk Pass there were skier tracks on Hydroline but none on Tyrwhitt. We returned the same way. A great day to be out with all the new snow. Hopefully most of the trails on the South end of the park can be packed and trackset now.

Knowing that Banff’s tracksetter Don had just been out grooming the new snow for the first time this season, I had to at least go for a little shuffle.
Any hazards were easily visible with the rolled snow, and by the time I met Louise she had already thrown about 50 rocks aside.
When Graham caught up with me, I had to step up my shuffle. Glad he was not on his skate skis!
I must admit that I also heard that Skier Bob was also coming up from behind… I couldn’t risk any photographic evidence that I was not following Doctor’s Orders!
The only Fat Biker I saw, was not having fun.
Read the captions in this Album for the details:https://1drv.ms/a/s!AhVZXBE7vMV7iDixd9lkZdRG_nqL
The trail is groomed with a roller to the Spray River Junction (9.9 km) and snowmobile packed to the National Park Boundary.

Update: Banff trail report indicates Goat Creek is groomed. Update: Chuck, who was there, says it is only snowmobile packed.
The Kananaskis Village trails were trackset today. Tracksetter Jeff sent me a photo which I’ll post later. 10-15 cm of new snow. Check the Live Grooming Report for Kananaskis.

Spray River West
As already mentioned, freshly roller packed this morning as far as Spray bridge at 9.9k. Not sure if Goat Creek was rolled as I only went for 7k. VR50 worked well. Enjoyable early-season conditions with a few rocks. I encountered something very interesting on the trail which I’ll tell you about later. Great to hear about the tracksetting at CNC.

Skied CNC – skied frozen thunder then Banff – then Bow n up to hut n to the end of Banff.
Great conditions for this time of year. From hut to end of Banff trackset so great!?
Basically had trails to ourselves – very few skiers on trails. One spot to watch for – under the bridge on Banff – gravel exposed.

Went up Cascade today with all the new snow. Ski-tracked past the Cascade River bridge. Lovely snow, we were on R-skins but those with wax seemed to do okay. Apparently the snow was slightly warmer/ sticky after the bridge on loop around campground. Parks’ track setter was at west side of Spray River today, but dropped off roller at Cascade trailhead at end of day. Very thin on road, expect poles to hit pavement – a lot! May be one more good day here tomorrow before the really warm weather returns?

Nordic Centre this morning had fresh snow and grooming. It gets even better after the Meadow with the natural snow…groomed and trackset. Goomers were working on Bow and Meadowview. Super conditions for anytime of the season.

Nov. 19
Skied up Whiskey Jack, over fire lookout and down the back to hydroline. The steep bits down to hydroline were a bit tricky on skinny skis as there was about 8″ of fresh snow with ruts from previous skiers. Everything else was groomed and skier tracked. At about 3:00 snow began to fall quite heavily.

Left the Elk Pass trailhead parking lot at 11 am, waxing with 0 to -1 C. Worked pretty well to climb up to Elk Pass. Taking advantage of a well packed trail to Elk Lakes ACC hut, by outgoing overnight visitors on fat boards and even sleds, my skinny skis were good as long as I stayed in the trail. My tooth pick poles were easily hitting the ground through 20-25 cm of snow. By the time I got to the hut, skis had been icing up quite a bit. Scraped the ice and rewaxed. Not a soul around and pretty peaceful. Climbing back the 200 m or so to the pass worked great on wax, followed by the welcoming downhill glide to the car, arriving at 2:30 pm. Heavy snowing made the glide slower than usual, but a great day for a first ever visit to Elk Lakes.

More new snow than forecast at Lake Louise today, 5-10 cm as Pete wrote earlier. Moraine Lake parking lot full and cars parked for 50 m up and down both sides of road, so we continued straight up to main Chateau parking lot. Half dozen cars on Tramline trailhead side at 10:15 am. -3-4 degrees, so put on bit of VR45 equivalent. That worked for while, but started icing about 3 km up MLR. Scraped it off to uncover leftover colder wax from last Wednesday, and had no further trouble. Soft tracks with new snow produced a slow but angst-free descent from the top. It was easy to stay in the track all the way down.

Mount Shark to Spray River. Generally good to very good skiing. As at 6 PM snowing moderately. At least 7 cm of new snow in the afternoon. Expect much more over night. Skier tracked. A few places ski poles will hit road.
It would be a good idea for parks to pack the trail so all the new snow does not blow away and to establish a good base. Extremely slow snow coming out.

Spray River to second Spray River Bridge skier tracked. Nice straight trail cut by a straight skier. Fair to Good skiing to Whiteman Creek turn-off. Will be generally very good with anther15 to 20 cm of new snow.

Elk Pass-Blueberry Hill – Nov 19
We opted for a later start than Helen and Carole for todays tour to Elk Pass. It was -2C at the Elk Pass parking lot at either end of the trip, and -4C at the pass. VR-45 worked well (for those who were waxing) until about the pass, when it was a bit too grippy in the new snow. I was testing out my new Skin-Tec’s and was quite impressed how well they worked. We did Elk Pass, Blueberry Hill, Hydroline, Patterson and Fox Creek. Most of it was great skiing, except for that rough bit at the last 200m to the top of Blueberry Hill. It was snowing at a rate of about 1 cm per hour after about 1 pm, so there will be a good amount of fresh snow to start the new week.https://photos.app.goo.gl/6XcT2z5hCeX06OGl1

Elk Pass parking lot 9am -3. Used vintage blue (zero to -4) and was able to walk up most hills all day. Elk Pass to Patterson to Hydroline (windy up there) down Pass (nice new sign as photographed by Bob and slightly better location for picnic table) then took run up Blueberry. Looked like the groomer had some problems and could not make it up the last 100 M. so we turned around shy of top. Nice ski out but some rocks starting to show on the big hill ascent after Fox junction. My hips killed on the snow-plow descents so might have to up the pain meds. We did not encounter buckets of snow falling.

PLPP -Pocaterra : via Rolly Road access at back of parking lot their were only 2 other skier set tracks till ComeAlong junctn. Short 12k ski up toward Packers & back after picnic lunch with snow squalls all afternoon. Nice conditions in trees at -1 & no clumping on VR45. Lots of animal sign aside track. Various walkers -not as kind as JeanJ encountered as they tramped skier tracks -no harm I guess as trail will get machine groomed early this week I suppose anyway (more a matter of etiquette as amply signed).
Overall, an interesting drive up Highwood from Longview and a pleasant daughter-dad day in a winter wonderland woods!

West Bragg Creek was still workable today (19th). Skied Mtn Road, Mtn View, West Crystal, Loggers, Elbow, Iron Springs, East Crystal on classic skintecs – very windy, +5 at noon. Only Iron Springs was really unpleasant with rocks and dirt south of the gate, and many, many hoof prints north of the gate. Skating would be fine everywhere else, classic too if you don’t mind the lack of track. Pretty great for Nov 19th and the puppy had lots of fun. Nevertheless, more snow would be helpful, likely necessary in some areas by the time the temperature drops back down.

Better than expected at WBC on November 18
We had a great early morning ski around Moose Loop plus Loggers Loop yesterday. The 2 cm of new snow on Thursday made the trails quite reasonable.
Track-set heaven to Elk Pass on November 19
We enjoyed a fun ski up to Elk Pass on the new track set trail. The grooming almost all the way up to Blueberry Hill was appreciated even though the view was minimal. The snowy scenery was pretty and comforting. The high winds did not affect us much as we finished skiing by 1:15 p.m. but it had potential to get excited in the afternoon. The snow was falling at the junction to Blueberry Hill around noon.

Hopefully the snowfall warning extends to the CNC. First explore of the trails (Paul) and I would only ski on Frozen Thunder as the snow was thin on Banff. Frozen thunder is in good condition but the fairly steep hills might intimidate new skiers. Temperature was 3 to 4oC and Swix Purple worked well on the man-made snow.

Dumping snow at Lake Louise today. Skied up tramline from the hostel to moraine lake road about 5-10cm fresh snow on old tracks. Continued to Fairview junction and up Fairview to upper tramline (skier set with a number of trees across the trail). Popped in at Lake Louise then back down tramline to moraine lake parking. After today there will be plenty of fresh snow to play in!

Took a recon tour of a favorite loop at PLPP – from Bolton Parking up Whiskeyjack, Pocaterra to Lookout junction, up and over Lookout down Hydroline and finished up and over the Big Hill to Elk Pass parking.
We found a large pile of chips and heavy construction equipent at Bolton parking and what appears to be new trail construction. The area around Bolton is very disturbed. Whiskeyjack was snow sled packed – a very rough first pass of 15 to 20 cm base. The tail of Pocaterra to Lookout junction was skier track set on 25 cm of ungroomed snow. Lookout (going up) appeared to have been packed before the last large snowfall, but no recent work was evident. We found about 30 cm of snow at the Kananaskis Lookout and a temperature of minus 1 C at 12:30 pm. Down the south side there appeared to be the same early packing for part of the way. The section between Bolton Creek and Hydroline was 25 cm of untouched snow. Hydroline was groomed (corduroy) to Elk Pass trail and there we found the groomed and trackset trail Bob skied today. Fox Creek had been snow sled packed. A fine day was had by all. Oh yes, I should mention we were on snowshoes but this report is really for the skiers.

Took our waxless skis on our first trip of the season. The conditions were better than we thought. Plenty of snow, the hikers and snowshoers stayed to the sides of the trail for the most part and someone had set a nice trail for us up to the Whiskeyjack junction and beyond. The snow was thinner along Tyrwhitt and we turned around just past the Lookout junction. Still snowing lightly in the area when we left at 4pm.

I skied the Banff Trail at CNC Saturday morning. Mainly just packed, there’s only track setting part way up the first hill from the lodge. There are a few thin spots, the most important are under the two bridges, so watch yourself as you’re going down that hill towards the lodge. The new warming hut wasn’t open yet. The snow on the second half (west of the meadow) is generally better than the first half, which was nice.

Went to Boom Lake and was surprised to find a nice packed trail with some fresh snow on top. Purple wax worked wonders with great glid. About a dozen rocks striking out along the trail but all easy to see and avoid on the way back down. Overall better than average mid season conditions.

Chester Lake today (Saturday) — excellent conditions for early season. About -6ºC at 10:15 AM at parking lot. About 45cm of base with maybe 10cm of fresh snow in the past 24 hours. Some afternoon sunny periods added to the winter wonderland of it all. Found some great turns on the lower treed slopes up above Elephant Rocks. Just a couple of rocks showing through on the trail. -4ºC at 3:00 PM – maybe 15 cars in the parking lot.

More West Bragg: Decent skiing overall, especially on the more protected trails such as Sundog, West Crystal, Loggers and Elbow. Exposed trails to the west, particularly parts of Mountain Views E and W, which suffered from melt-freeze earlier in the week, have now had much of the new snow blown off, making for some rugged skiing in spots. While still enjoyable to ski- the sheltered “core” trails could really benefit from a round of grooming….
Anyone at AB Parks listening?

West Bragg Creek
Crystal-Iron Springs-Elbow-Loggers Loop-Moose Loop
Started today at noon. Many girls are out there skiing!: girls with dogs, girls with children, and girls with just girls. However, the ski pathways were too fast to start a conversation. Ski tracks barely exist. Two places require extreme attention: the downhill one the far end of Iron Springs where the Slow and Right Turn sign is, and creek crossing on the far end of Moose Loop. Take care! Otherwise the conditions are pretty much the same everywhere there. Mild weather, V45 (-2, -6C) gave good grip.

Skied the 1A in Lake Louise today to just past the RossLake sign and back. About 16k. Beautiful day, easy to wax for the snow. We arrived around 11:00 and it was very busy. Foothills Nordic and a few other clubs there. The conditions were still good despite all of the skiers who’d gone before us in the morning. It was cool to see a few sit skiers training too.

I can echo Rhonda’s comments we started out at Lake O’Hara and skied up hill starting with a temperature of -6 and finishing with a temp of -4 around 1pm. We used VR 40 and had excellent grip both ways. The track setting from yesterday held up really well with the large number of skiers. Further west from where Rhonda turned around the tracks were generally very good with only a few sections filled in by blowing wind.

Confederation Park
With recent snow and a Chinook emerging in Calgary, Confederation Golf Course ( and Canmore Park across the street) was an appealing option for those not wanting the drive out of town. Many of the bare spots from last week nicely covered. Still skier set and in places a bit crusty underneath, and a few grassy areas but all in all a great place to get in a good ski and get ready for xc skiing season. Blue VR 30 wax worked well early in the day.

I can echo what ElaineB says… The new snow made a huge difference at Confed. I was actually pleasantly surprised that there’s at least 98% maybe even 98.32% coverage (roughly). ha ha. The skier-set “tracks” are pretty loose and wiggle-wobbly (as I call it) however I was still SUPER happy to have a ski. By 1pm the snow had warmed up and my Special Blue was quite hit and miss, so I mixed some light skate skiing in some areas which is what I’d suggest as the preferred choice of skiing there right now. No evidence of melting anywhere at 2pm.
There is some work on the SE corner w.r.t. Christmas lights going up plus the sledding area. Easy enough to ski around or avoid. The Driving Range was pleasant for sure.
Despite this short warming period there shouldn’t be much damage and now that there’s a great base it’ll be easy to successfully build upon it. I think they just need another 15-20cm and great tracksetting will be possible.

Lots of beautiful fresh snow, but too darned hot! We were sticking like crazy, and between that and time pressure, did not get all the way around. There was one set of tracks ahead of us……. now who could that be? Probably not Sheila’s hubby as there was no sign of Bob the dog…….

*fanfare and drum roll*
We finally met the fabled Helen on the trail!! A great moment in skiing history, and a delightful encounter 🙂

Other notes: a snowmobile had been up the Whiskey Jack trail, turned around and gone back down. On our way back, we saw snowshoe tracks heading up to the lookout, and then other ski tracks on the lower part of Pocaterra.
Finally, we were greeted at the Whiskey Jack junction by………… a pair of whiskey jacks 😛

Lake Louise area – other folks beat me to it on MLR and 1A reporting today so I won’t repeat but for those looking for dog-friendly trails at LL (Kazzy is getting itchy feet!), one of the groomers today told me that they hope to work on the Campground Loop in the next few days, possibly only packing, but possibly track-setting too – fingers crossed!

Great trackset conditions on the road (as everyone seems to note). Nice amount of snow in the skate ski lane so the decent was wonderful and controllable. -3oC all afternoon and Blue Extra gave good grip and super glide.

Skied West Bragg Creek Moose Loop counter clockwise today. Saw no-one west of the mountain road and had the place to myself at -12C under a clear blue sky. There was maybe evidence of a dozen skiers that had gone through but not more since we got a few centimetres yesterday. I assume one was Alf. One set of “big kitty” tracks at the far end near where the Tom Snow North trail heads off toward Dawson. As a point of note, that is the third time in a week that cougars or sign have been seen in the two weeks between Sibbald and Elk Valley – if you are skiing on your own, a can of bear-spray might be a precaution. Blue-extra was the wax of choice and it worked really well. The north side of moose loop is getting thin and icy under the sun and I only found one rock the whole trip out.

The West Bragg Trails are starting to need re-corduroyed on the hills but the province still seems to have the GBCTA groomers shutdown. It might be time to start calling on the province to either groom it or let it be groomed by others.

Thanks for noting the cougar tracks. The trick with bear spray is hitting a very agile, fast-moving animal if it decides to attack. And, cougars are stealth hunters, so you might not even know it’s there until it’s too late. A better deterrent for cougars is to travel in groups – they rarely attack groups.

WBC -Iron Springs/Elbow…
As per George, I only encountered a few other skiers this afternoon and only a few others before me on the fresh 1″ made for grippy uphills and ‘snow plowable’ steeps coming back to Elbow -it more rutted than iron springs however. Crystals was thin and heavy use (no skier set track) but well packed so I hope base holds up to all the walkers this Chinook weekend.

Great ski on The Great Divide this morning. Tracksetters were just starting when we arrived at 10:30 am….now groomed for skating and classic. They did the MLR earlier so everyone at Lake Louise had fresh grooming today.

Chuck, you were totally on my mind yesterday when I was all alone skiing Cascade. I kept stopping to look behind me to see if you and Jeanette were also skiing there. I wondered if you might be on Spray West or Goat Creek? Hearing of your bad fall brings much sadness because I know how passionate you are about x-c skiing. Maybe you will be allowed to use mini snowshoes or crampons to walk into the back country while you are waiting to get the OK from your doctor re. resuming the skiing. A Big Begbie comes to mind! My season will not be the same without you out there. I pray it will be not too long before you can be back out there with us all.

SPRAY WEST – Nov 16
Was really enjoying the 5 cms of new snow which had fallen on a well trodden icy base, until a lurking rock on a thin downhill brought me to a crashing halt. The X-Ray suggests a compressed disc.
Nice to see Bob is back skiing up here, and taking pictures.
Don’t get wrecked!

Thanks to All for your concern.
As the Home remedy seems to be not to mix alcohol with prescription drugs, I am trying to stay off the meds!
All kidding aside, I agree with MaSid… the best thing for lower back pain may be Cross Country Skiing (on groomed tracks).

Stopped in at the visitor center where they indicated no tracksetting yet on Pipestone but they were hopeful that it could happen soon if the forecast holds with a significant snowfall expected Sunday night.

West Bragg Creek, Nov 16
It would have been nice to have enough time for the 4 hour round trip drive to Lake Louise, to enjoy the great looking snow… but I only had the afternoon available.
West Bragg Creek got about 2 cm of new snow this morning. More would have been nice, but this was enough to refresh the skiing and make waxing easy.
A light layer of V45 was all I needed for a quick lap around Mountain View West and Moose Loop. After the first 1 km to Moose Connector, Mountain Road was in good condition (photo). Mountain View West was in great shape. Smooth, fast and no hazards anywhere.https://photos.app.goo.gl/fEOVABmDnd1MmvAS2
It was also good to see some construction progress on the new maintenance compound at the parking lot!

Did a night ski at west bragg with headlamps. Loggers loop and Crystal Line in darkness. Crust was well covered by few inches of new snow. One group of awesome young racers training with headlamps having a great time in the dark. Didn’t hit one rock. Could use a groomer and it would be perfect! Beautiful night! Some amazing fat biking conditions .

Was headed east into white out driving conditions for WWL in PLPP, when decided to do a U-turn @ Lac Des Arcs, back to Banff. Squeaked one lovely ski out on the road to Cascade (8-9 cms had fallen on the road) and all by myself doing turnaround at Campground. Skied in my own single track in and back, temp went from -7 to zero at campground within 2 hrs. Blue worked fine. Road will need more snow before w/e. Also, thank you to the photographer (Quick Draw McGraw) to capture that wolverine sighting on camera!! And thanks to Barb and the original poster and Bob for sharing this exciting sighting. It is closest I will likely ever get to seeing a wolverine.

Acronyms really suck as they are bad for communication. Imagine what people who have never seen this website before must wonder when they see all sorts of acronyms like PLPP, WMP, KMP, CRFR or WWL. Let’s be more user friendly and less lazy with the typing fingers out there and dump the acronyms

My apologies but have William Watson Lodge (WWL) on the brain as trying to get a booking in there for 2 months from now. It is a unique extraordinary facility in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park (PLPP) opened in 1981 by Jeanne and Peter Lougheed with the idea of creating a facility for persons with disabilities within Alberta Parks. Alberta Seniors (65yrs)are given 3rd priority to book, i.e. 2 months in advance. First priority Albertans with severe disabilities are allowed to book 4 months in advance and less severe disabilities 3 months in advance. Some of the x-c ski trails start right at the facility and link to the entire PLPP trail system.

Peter Lougheed Park Nov 15. Cool cloudy day, around -5º
We parked at Boulton Bridge and skied Boulton Creek, Elk Pass, Tyrwhitt and Whiskey Jack. The snowpack is pretty thin generally and we’ll have to wait for a couple of large snowfalls before there’s enough to groom. We found 8-10cm of fresh dry snow on top of a packed base so the skiing was pleasant but a bit slow. It is mostly skier-tracked with some bumpy creek crossings and sporty downhill sections. The steep downhill curve on Whiskey Jack was particularly brutal with deep snow, ruts and snowbanks, (we used metal-edged xc skis so it was manageable). Tyrwhitt is quite thin with plenty of bushes sticking through but no rocks. There’s a nice new sign at the top of Elk Pass, (see photo). Looks like a BC Parks production.
There’s some serious construction going on around the Boulton Parking lot. It appears they’re expanding the campground.

As Chuck had warned me, there is NOT enough snow to ski anywhere around Baker Creek. We did a re-con of Protection Mtn Campground loops but might need some base repair after it. Also thought we might be able to ski a portion of the 1-A that is closed beyond Baker Creek x 6 months but no such luck, as it has been scraped down to the pavement. Then we stopped in to talk to the gentleman who has worked at Castle Junction Hostel and was an excellent source of information for its “future usage”. Sadly it is closing Dec 31st. Carried on to MLR where we had a later respectful afternoon start. Lightly snowing and -1 at turn around. Slower descent down that 240 M.

It’s a siksika nation land claim issue (based an old timber rights area). The claim was settled earlier this year with a $124 million payment from federal government to the band in lieu of giving the land back to the band, but with the option of the band taking over existing commercial leases and they have exercised that option for the hostel site (to be some kind of future native education hostel I believe). The land claim area may also include storm mountain lodge. Not sure it includes castle mountain chalets and the little gas statio/store.

Moraine Lake Road – Great tracks today with morning temps around -7 and -3 at day’s end. VR40 was great the whole way. Peter and I went to the Lake, shrouded in fog but beautiful nonetheless. It was snowing lightly as we left.

Rode “Green” (-4 -10) non-fluoro worked great. Found in Lifesport’s bargain bin. Green tin, but blue temperature range. Leave it to the Italians to mess with the colors. Years ago, Rode “fast blue special fluor” (-3-7) also in bargain bin. Works great. Color of wax? Pink.

Trackset again early this morning! I think that is six days in a row that Parks Canada staff have been out track setting… Amazing.
Today was the first day that they trackset the portion from the Lake O’Hara end to the actual Great Divide (previously it had just been packed and skier tracked).
Lots of Skier Bob enthusiasts out. Check the details at:https://1drv.ms/a/s!AhVZXBE7vMV7iC35N3rINgCYWWmm
Only 45 days left of free skiing in Banff National Park, so enjoy it!
Happy Canada 150

Great Divide Trail – Very good condition for early season! We started at the Lake O’Hara end in cloudy, calm conditions and -7C. There was fresh tracksetting over 3-4 cms. snow that fell yesterday. Lots of twigs poking through at the west end of the trail but better coverage east of the Divide. Returning from the Louise-side parking lot, the outbound track (north side)was quite ‘twiggy’ and soft, having less snow than the south-side track. Lots of folks out (nice to chat with Chuck and Jeanette). It was -3C back at the O’Hara end at 1:30 pm. Snow was getting a bit sticky by then and snow had started to fall.

Great Divide Trail. Fresh grooming today. VR 45 worked well and we could have gone up to VR 50 on our return. Great glide Ran into Chuck and a lot of Banff folk. Racers from La range were out skating as well.
The groomers widened the trail by about 1m skating lane was soft but looked good. My only complaint would be the groomers could slow their machines down a bit. The track that they leave behind tends to be shallow and the side walls are not solid due to the higher speed. I’ve spent a fair bit of time on a snowmachine grooming in MB, AB.,YT and B.C. Going slower makes for firmer tracks. I know some would say we should be happy with what we have but an extra 10minutes a pass would make for much firmer tracks.

LAKE O’HARA FIREROAD Nov 15
Chuck requested a report…..Ski-ed up to the picnic table at the 5 km mark. Good coverage for the first 3 km uphill section to past the Ross Lake junction. After that the snow seemed a bit thinner but no issues until an ice-flow with rocks below it at about 4 km in. I walked this section both ways. Also a bit rocky towards the top of the hill by the picnic table. Skiers coming out from Elizabeth Parker reported good coverage beyond where I got to. Skier set tracks mainly of the wide AT variety. -4C at 1:00pm. Swix VR45 worked fine.

Was hoping Keith Bagnall would write today’s report on Great Divide since he did the full length of it and we 3 turned around at the hut. Met several skiers from CSOC enjoying the new 2-3 cms of light powder, shortly after 10am and -2. At the hut it was zero (noonish) so we put on some VR 50 and returned, gliding well with it. We did not see any wolverine sightings but an adorable brown mole was burrowing under the snow beside my ski. I thought it was a leaf until it started moving. Check out the fancy bathrooms at the LL Info Centre. Fancy Dyson taps to figure out and beautiful photo murals inside all the stalls.

I got waylaid by my other life but did plan to submit a report. Here it goes:
Started Great Divide on VR40 but quickly changed to VR50. It was minus 3 at the trail head and there was fresh snow on the track set. The skis were gliding on the skier set track better than I can remember from all of last year – however I am a senior so… Caught up to Helen and had a nice chat as we skied toward Lake O’Hara. Skis started icing at the top of the Divide hill and the tracks got progressively warmer as we approached the O’Hara turn around. Once back in Alberta the snow was cooler and we were gliding well again. Pole strikes on pavement at the trail head parking and the last 10 metres of track at Lake O’Hara. All other sections between have very good snow and skier set track. Highly recommended ski!

Belated MLR report
went out yesterday, arriving around noon i think, or just when the snow started to really come down. as mentioned by others, waxing was impossible (and to make it worse i put on way too much was, typical 1st ski of the season mistake). trail was okay, not much if you were doing classic and looking for a great ski, but good enough to get the first few kms of the year under the belt and reacquaint oneself with skis and snow. skaters seemed to be doing, much, much, much better.
Had no trouble finding parking, in the lot by the road. 2 spots when i showed up and seemed to be constant in and out. saw couple of cars come in to the lot and pull out 10 secs before someone came off the trail and went to their car.
bare patches around paradise curve were easy to avoid, but i definitely would not hit the curve at the bottom with any speed.
and you know what would be really cool? if the park service could toss a bench in to the pull out for….forget which trail, but there’s a parking lot with a trail head sign that’s covered and big enough for a small bench. i probably wouldn’t use it, though it would have been nice as i stopped there to do my 3rd rewaxing attempt, but for beginners and other folks who aren’t out to pound miles.
anyway, just a thought…

West Bragg Creek – November 13 late afternoon. Wait for significant new snowfall before skiing here!
I set out along the Mountain Road in the late afternoon. The sun was obscured by a grey cloud which I thought looked like it might bring snow. Skier set tracks were icy to the first bridge with boot holes. I was using my rock skis which have fish scales so I had no kick on the ice. After the bridge, it was less icy and I had decent kick. I turned onto Moose Loop at the cattle gate. Conditions were okay in the trees. I chatted with two other skiers, one of whom had opted to take here skis off on the downhills. They advised me that it was icy with bare patches, but conditions were better if I went left at the first junction. I did that. Then I took a wrong turn onto the summer Moose Loop connection to Tom Snow. It wasn’t roller packed, which made for better skiing until I came out of the trees to the top of the downhill. The sun had melted a fair bit of snow here and there were too many rocks so I turned and went back to the winter trail. I skied cautiously down the hill, not sure if the dark patches were rocks or grass (grass). Once I came out of the trees, the trail was ice on top of packed snow, with boot holes. Not pleasant. Across the bridge, the uphill looked quite bare of snow so I turned left to connect to Tom Snow, skiing across the narrow bit of the creek quickly and relieved to stay dry. One other skier had been through before me and this was not roller packed. It was quite pleasant until I reached the next creek crossing. It looked like a recipe for wet skis and I have a memory of the trail along Tom Snow back to Mountain Road being much longer than I would like. Not wanting to risk being out by myself at sunset, I turned and went back the way I came. (I couldn’t remember the words to enough songs to sing the bears a warning). Happily, it began to snow – almost imperceptibly at first and then increasing to a blinding shower of big flakes. It was unfortunately a short snow shower and seemed to fall only on Moose Loop. I’ll be waiting for a significant snowfall before heading out to WBC again.

I was grateful to get out for a rare weekday ski, and to be skiing so early at WBC. This means my trail report is decidedly from the ‘cup half full’ perspective. Overall I’d say good conditions. I used my wax skis for a couple of hours starting at mid-day. My violet wax was okay for shady sections – but not a good fit for the warmer, exposed sections. I met some folks who used VR 60 and they were faring better. Best skiing was on Elbow as it has more coverage. I knew coming back along the really exposed section of Iron Springs would be a gamble – and it was indeed soft….really soft. The way I see it was that I got more time to enjoy the beauty out there!

I swapped for my Rossi skin techs mid-afternoon and (imaging choirs of angels singing now) they performed beautifully!!! The chunked-up sections of loggers, west crystal line and sundog (mainly foot traffic from what I could see, some horse tracks) were no match for the mighty skin-techs!!! Not only did I get great traction, I was able to cruise and even do some kick double pole 🙂
Note for cup not so full folks: fair conditions. Not poor though, because despite shrubbery poking up, the few rocks were easy to avoid.

Rossignol skin skis. These are a waxless ski that uses a “skin” for grip and a number of brands sell them including Rossignol, Fischer, and Atomic. I have a pair of Fischer Twinskins and here’s a photo which shows the skins. Fischer twinskin skis
When I apply glide wax to the bases, which I’m doing today, it’s necessary to put tape over the skins. Taped for waxing

So are these “better” than the fishscale waxless skis or different ie you would use them under different conditions? I am mostly looking for a waxless option for when I skijor with my dog(s) Control is helpful.

Unfortunately, that is the $64000 question. Bob has used all the different types, as far as I know.
One of your local ski teachers Kim McKenny has a nice short guide. Go way down the web page to find ‘Second Question: Which Kind of Waxless Skis Do You Want?’ to see the different kinds. Kim doesn’t recommend fishscales -)

West Bragg Creek – Nov 13
Timing was everything at West Bragg Creek today. We got a mid-morning start and found pretty good conditions on Mountain Road, Moose Connector and the north-east half of Moose Loop. V45 worked quite well. Warm blasts of Chinook air greeted us as we went past the Moose wetlands and the snow was starting to get wet on the uphill beyond there. Conditions were good again for the rest of the way to the picnic table at the north end of the loop. After lunch, the snow had noticeably softened with the sun and wind. The hill down to the creek required some caution, because the creek has not frozen over yet and the narrow bridge off to the side requires some manoeuvring to cross. From the bridge to the Mountain View West junction, it was slippery, as the snow temperature warmed beyond the range of the wax. We had intended of skiing Mountain View West, but opted to return via the shadier south half of Moose Loop. The shaded snow was still cold and the wax started working properly again.https://photos.app.goo.gl/3Tcd1rDKVZ5tAE3g1
Lots of people out again today, enjoying the snow and spring-like weather.
Was the snow as light and fluffy as when it fell 10 days ago? No… but the coverage is good and if it cools on Tuesday, it will make a great base for the next snowfall.

WBC today was tough. Spring like conditions. Melt and freeze cycles make the snow hard. Ski control is difficult. It is hard to get the edge of skis to bite. I saw people sliding on their butts on the Moose Loop – the place damaged by horses. WBC is best to avoid until new snow falls. Many other hazards, rocks, dirt starts to show up. If you go, take the rock skis with metal edge.

Boom Lake
First ski of the year at Boom Lake. Snow coverage improved as we skied into the forest. The snow fell ever so softly on the climb – it was beautiful!!
A few rocks to ski around yet very good coverage. My children with waxless skis did better then me on a waxable base. We met a couple on alpine/skins who decided to leave the skins on to protect their skis. Some boot traffic too.
Lost: I left one ski in the parking lot. My son’s 140 cm waxless rossignal ski, grey in color. If found, please call at 403-202-5615 for reward.
Thanks, Adam

Variable would be the best descriptor of the skiing this afternoon at West Bragg.
Waxing was a bit of a challenge at times, with the warm winds and a mix of sun and cloud. After a couple of rounds of we settled on Swix VR 60 which actually worked quite consistently on snow conditions that ranged from being still dry and powdery- to springlike wet and glazed. Trails closer to the core area are heavily pockmarked from walkers, and there is a bit of debris here and there, but coverage remains very good with a firm base. Overall- the skiing remained fair to good, but in need of a refresh. Fingers crossed!

I skate skied Confederation Park today
I started to ski around the park and it was not bad considering. I encountered a few bald spots and the trail was sometimes rough but the snow was soft. I ended up at the practice grid where the circuit was in good shape – a few brown areas but otherwise well covered.
I don’t know for how much longer though.
cheers,
michael

If you arrived after 10 am at MLR, you were unlikely to get a parking spot. -2 and lots of people there since schools out. Skaters had the advantage today, while many of us “trads” tried on our fashion high heels for the first time. Snowing abundantly and ski to the lake (-1 at lake) was lovely with lots going the distance, but clumping an issue even on my waxless Fishers. It was snowing lightly and +1 leaving LL at 3pm, but started raining about half way back to Canmore. Should be awesome tomorrow at both MLR or GD.

First ski of the year for me today! Did a loop of Mountain Road, Mountain View West, Moose Loop, back on Mountain Road, at West Bragg Creek. Conditions were great for skating, and the weather was awesome. Lots of happy bikers and hikers out there, and we stopped for a chat with some horse riders who kindly moved aside to let us pass.

Skied the Bill Milne trail on Monday morning. Still good but a bit thin. A bit more pavement exposed than on Saturday, but still easy to avoid. As I was leaving at about 1030 it started to rain. Hoping that turns to snow.

Skied Pocattera 10Nov from Hwy 40 (9Km from winter barrier) on 10Nov, then tyrwrtt over to Elk Pass. Very nice snow, only half to one foot deep but fine. Park skidoo had run through but no track set yet. Saw one martin, very odd but nice.

High Rockies trail Goat Creek south.
Parked down first road past Goat Creek parking lot. Skied down the road to the bridge over Goat Creek . Snow was thin and we picked up a few new directionless grooves. We only skied the upper trail to the figure 8 junction return. Initially, lots of foot and snow shoe traffic. Ran into two fat bikers. After about 2km an actual skied in track emerges out of the foot traffic. At the junction only ski traffic and a few snow shoe tracks. Close to 0C purple mulitgrade with a mix of purple worked well. No one has skied /walked the lower trail.

Trail breaking rock skiing mission. Via Sunshine Road. Trial in the Bow Valley to Sundance Lodge turnoff is in fair shape. Silky sweet fast snow. Would be a good idea for a snowmobile packing mission by Parks to establish a better base. Rocks exist so use rock skis.

Took the short cut trail up towards Sundance Lodge. Poor shape. Needs 30 cm of snow.

Brewster Creek trail to the 3rd Brewster Creek bridge (somewhat near Sundance Lodge) is in poor to fair shape. 8 to 12 cm of snow. Wet snow in sun exposed areas and lower down. Drier snow on some sunless aspects higher up. The big hills coming down are mainly in poor shape to fair shape lower in valley. Wet snow on the big hills for the most part. Many rocks. Would be a good idea for a beater snowmobile to pack the trail to establish a base . This section of trail will be in fair to good shape with 15 cm of new wet snow now that ski tracks have been established.

Showed up prepared with several options to ascend the Rummel Lake Trail. I chose to carry snow shoes to the Lake and then I used them to access Rummel Pass. Not a good place for skis right now. Some ski tracks in the upper Valley but little activity otherwise, past the Lake.

Chester Lake
11-12-17
Fantastic conditions today at Chester Lake. Note to trail crew, please indicate one way only on ski out track as many lost hikers walking up the down track. Fair to decent conditions, some rocks but they were very obvious. Mixed bag of skiers, many hikers and lots more on snow shoes. No moose to be seen. Very warm day and lake NOT fully frozen. Lots of punters on avalanche slopes with no idea or proper gear. Photos:

Correct me if I’m wrong but I’m pretty sure the one way descent trail for skiers on Chester lake trail doesn’t exist anymore. The reason is because it’s now part of new High Rockies trail and therefore it’s open to all users. That’s probably why the one way signage was removed.

Pete, I had never thought of that, but that is right, the high Rockies does branch off on the previously signed “one way only” . Its a real shame to see hikers walking up the downhill for skiers, hopefully nobody will get hurt. I wonder if another signage could indicate “preferred uphill traffic please go right”

Unfortunately I think it’s inevitable there will be accidents along there, especially with how popular Chester Lake is with everyone lately. I usually ski up late in the day when most people are heading out. By the time I head down there’s usually no one around so there’s less chance of a collision.

0c at the Moraine Lake Road trail head at 1100am. Sky stayed overcast so the sun wasn’t able to heat up the snow at all. V60 Red/Silver provided adequate, if a bit delicate, kick

We skied up Tramline, which was single trackset, Then up Fairview which was a blast despite being skier trackset only. There was just enough snow to accommodate travel and cross the creeks. Probably not a good choice for beginners. A few blown down trees were easily crossed. We regained the MLR and found it a bit thin in spots, rock skis recommended.

The Foothills Nordic posse was present in droves, many smiles all day long

Skied Great divide with my wife from the Lake O’Hara end today. Not much of a track from the start but it soon improved. Noticed only one small patch of bare pavement the whole way. Good glide on warm blue wax (V40). Not that busy so it made for a quiet peaceful ski. No fresh bear tracks (although my daughter was fortunate enough to see two wolverines near the LL end in the afternoon). When we arrived at the Lake Louise end we crossed the road and herringboned up the steep trail that joins tramway. We skied to Lake Louise for a quick pic then back down tramway (one decent track) to the Moraine lake road. Then back up tramway to walk back down the trail to the Great divide parking lot. Another wonderful day of skiing!

Pete
So I wondered what your daughter noticed about the wolverines?
Were they the same size? Or different? Lopping across the trail ? Or traveling down the road? I am asking because I’d like to add it to the parks database.
That is a very rare sighting , lucky girl!

Hi Barb! I’ll ask my daughter the details of what she saw on Wednesday and get back to you. So far I know she saw two of them cross the road not far from the Lake Louise end of Great Divide Trail. I also have pictures of one or both of them our friend took.

They were different sizes, the second one was definitely a little bigger than first.
Both were sniffing excitedly up, down, left and right on the freshly groomed trail. We watched them for a few minutes continue with this behavior. As we skied by, first one, then the other wandered into the trees, but both re-emerged onto the groomed trail once we had skied by.

I’d be happy to answer other questions… Bob – can feel free to share my email address with Barb.

Skied Terrace, Kovach, up Ribbon Creek to Terrace, and Bill Milne today to Wedge Pond. Skijored with the pups for about 70 minutes on the Bill Milne trail. Trail got pretty beat up from the chinook winds. Coverage is very thin but skiable; I only skate so gliding on top of it wasn’t too bad, snow was wet and sticky though. There some spots where the asphalt was poking through but it was easy enough to avoid. I’ll probably hold off on waxing anything until conditions improve. Lots of snow at Kananaskis village, hopefully we get another dump soon because this continued warm weather will probably make the Bill Milne trail not skiable in the next few days.

On JR’s report, we decided to venture out to the Cascade Fire Road for an early season ski. Our first surprise was to meet JR’s daughter and friend in the parking lot. She quickly said that if the conditions were cruddy, we could blame her dad.

Hmmm…. I think that JR skis with rose-coloured glasses. Our first surprise was the fact that the road from the parking lot to the start of the trail is bare of white stuff. Those wanting to ski have a 20-minute walk before they begin the climb. There were a few hearty souls heading up with us. Linn, with skis strapped to his pack, was walking up, all smiles.

The air temperature on arrival was -1 C. I put on VR45 with a thin layer of VR50 for the big hill. This combination worked perfectly all day and with little temperature change until dropping back down to the parking lot at 3:30.

The track was pretty good but quite thin and rocks are poking through quite often beyond the first bridge. We continued another 4 km before deciding to lunch and turn around.

There were some large cat tracks, just about as big as my fist and presumably cougar. No sightings though.

Even though the snow conditions were VERY marginal, there was hardly a breeze, the temperature was quite pleasant and the views, as always, jaw-dropping.

Lots already from WBC today so I’ll just say thay Moose Loop offered great gliding today. Not track set but if you have the bonus of owning skis with edges, you’ll find it quite pleasant. Good coverage. Only 1 or 2 rocks which are easily avoided.

Figured we’d get Skier Bob a trip report for the Spray Valley. We skied to Watridge Lake on a 2cm base. Only one reason to ski this trail right now and that’s if you happen to be staying at Mount Engadine Lodge (or visiting for brunch/tea) and you want a trailhead nearby. Otherwise there are much better trails right now. If you do decide to ski to Watridge Lake you will want your rock skis. Too many to pick off the trail.

Had a wonderful day on the Great Divide Trail near Lake Louise. Only 2 cars in the parking lot when we pulled up around 11 am. Skier set tracks on fairly fresh snow (that covered previous grooming). Conditions were wonderful! My husband managed to find a pair of used boots that are working for him…now he wants waxable skis (he was using my waxless today)…so if anyone is selling a set of classic skis around 200 cm (he is 75 kg) with NNN bindings for reasonable price let me know. We are also hoping to our friends who are Syrian refugees out cross country skiing as well…if they like it I’ll be looking for more recreational gear :)….who doesn’t love cross country skiing??? Would post a pic but can’t see how to do that 🙂

As SkierBob’s blog does not have provision for people posting comments to upload photos onto it’s server, so that they can embed an image into their post, as you might see done on other on-line forums, you will need to have your photos hosted elsewhere on the web, and include a link to that location so that others may view them there. You can set up an account at and use a number of “free” services for hosting your pix on “the cloud”- Google Photos being one. Chuck uses Microsoft One Drive which has both free and paid options, and I use Smugmug which requires a paid subscription. Once you have something like that setup, and your photos hosted there, it is simple to just copy the link (web “address”) for your photo or gallery of photos for a particular day, and paste it into your comment before you submit it.

Had a nice first ski of the season on mlr to Moraine lake today with my wife, daughter, and her friend. The parking lot was full when we arrived so we had to park on the road. A short way from the start we met Chuck skiing in and chatted with him for a bit then a short time later met Ray Perrot waxing on the trail side. The snow was thin at the bends near paradise creek with bare patches of pavement showing. Parks was there doing snow farming to cover up the worst bits. Had lunch at the end of grooming then down to Moraine lake. We met a few hikers and fat bikers on the ski out. It was awesome to be out on the skis again!

Skied Moraine Lake Road today with hundreds of young folks, trainers and parents from Foothills Nordic Ski Club and Canmore Nordic Ski Club. A training camp is on at Lake Louise so lots of young people will be on MLR again Sunday.
A skiff of new snow freshened the road but wasn’t enough to add depth. Tracks are still shallow from the bottom up to Fairview junction. Caution is required at curve below Paradise Creek where pavement was showing. Parks groomers were mining snow for the skating lane below the bridge. The best conditions are above Paradise Creek and skiing was great for my first ski day.
Tracks were freshened on MLR during the day but didn’t hold up long due to the warm snow and number of skiers. Upper Tramline was groomed and a single track was set in the afternoon.
Started at minus 4 C with VR45 but quickly added VR50 which worked well all day.

Skied a good chunk of the Crystal Lines and up Mountain Road to Mountain View West down to Moose Loop by the Telephone Connector. In pretty good condition that far back with no ruts from horses, it could use another groom but I was skating it’s all relative. Was skijoring today on that spot and wasn’t too concerned with the conditions.

Fresh hiking boots on Crystal Line today however, add that to the horse tracks and Crystal Line is sort of a mess at the moment; particularly if you are attempting to skate.

Bill Milne from mnt Kid to the Nakiska bridge and back, snow is holding up well, as others have said a few bare spots easily avoided, he says after having been caught out by one right out of the gate! VR55 worked great on all but the sunny spots, fortunately is was cloudy most of the day.

Took a side trip up Wedge connector, Better coverage as Bob said and nice not to have asphalt click on ever pole plant. More than few rocks showing close to the bridge, easily avoided this time even by me. Meet several happy skies all enjoying a rare chance to ski Bill Milne

CASCADE VALLEY
Just went to the bridge and back and the snow is holding up very nicely. Zero degrees at departure, used VR45 wax and had no problem with grip. The trail is skier set and well established. Coverage is excellent for Nov. 11. Remember our Vets today.

Conditions were really quite good for November, and the weather was glorious at West Bragg today. The snow quality and coverage is holding up very well considering the warm sun, and waxing was simple, with Start Purple working flawlessly except on one short sun exposed hill that was getting a bit too springlike. We ended up skiing out the end of Mountain Road and back as the best skiing was found there with good smooth tracks giving great kick and glide. It reminded me of the Moraine Lake road in a way- only with way less people and more sun! Mountainview in great shape as well, and we found the hoof prints on Moose Connector to be only a minor annoyance. We ran into Bob, Cheryl and Tessa on the return- I’m sure he’ll have a full report later.
A few pix here:https://steveriggs.smugmug.com/WestBraggNovember11

Kananaskis Village -November 10.
We skied Terrace, Kovach and Aspen Trails on Friday . Track setting on Terrace and grooming everywhere else. It was not necessarily pretty everywhere and more snow is required for better coverage but the snow quality itself was great and a good time was had by myself, fellow skiers and those we met along the way. The temperature probably went above zero so although the snow was able to keep its good characteristics while we were skiing there will probably be slightly icy conditions tomorrow should it not snow over night

West Bragg Creek – Fri Nov 10
West Crystal (creek side), Moose Connector and most of Moose Loop were stomped up by two folk on horseback this afternoon, dropping huge dumps at every intersection along w.xtl. Looked like they went up west side of Telephone too. Expressed dismay at their choice of trail when we met them. We been doin it like this for years was their incredulous reply. We took a close look at the signage and yes indeedy-doo, they’re free to stomp and poo wherever they’d like ’till Dec 1. Hummph. Saw a huge group of snowshoers being led over the ski trail bridge and down w.xtl ski trail as we got back. Gotta laugh, to keep from cryin’.

I wonder if we could agitate to have the dates changed? We often have the best snow at Bragg Creek in November.
Of course, I have seen horses on trails clearly marked “no horses”, but that is another story……….

Skied West Bragg tonight, in good shape for this early in the season. Someone rode a horse on most of the groomed ski trails however; big hoof divots left in the corduroy with some major spots with lots of horse crap. Keep an eye for it when skiing.

Perfect timing today as the track setters arrived just as I headed out. See (and read) how nicely they have prepared it for you:https://1drv.ms/a/s!AhVZXBE7vMV7iBcDoAbV-4ZsK4Fw
There were 2 cms of fresh snow last night and temperatures stayed below zero all day, so there were lots of happy faces.
Suggest those Skier Bob Rock Pickers head west… only need to watch out for the thin area on the curve near that first bridge.

West Bragg Creek Nov 9
Pretty well all of the West Bragg Crrek trails have now been packed and groomed. No tracksetting yet because the snowpack is not quite deep enough. Coverage is generally good, except on steeper hills or under large trees. Thanks to the Parks crew for getting this done!
The live grooming report has been updated. Just note that Loggers Loop, Moose Loop and Telephone Loop have actually been groomed, although the live grooming report does not say that.
I skied a loop that included most of the Crystal Lines, Mountain View, Mountain Road and Hostel Loop. It’s nice to be able to combine all those, without crossing the parking lot.

What a great day skiing up Skogan Pass today. It’s a long grind up to the lookout but what a ride down ! Almost took out Skier Bob as he was working away removing rocks from the trail just above the intersection with Ruthies. Thanks Bob 🙂 The trail is in pretty good shape still and the further up you go the better the snow becomes. At the first intersection with Skogan Loop it looked like a pack of wolves had ripped apart some poor creature as all that was left was blood and fur ( unless of course it was a fallen skier ).

Skied Skogan Pass today – There were a few rocks that we tried to remove on the way up – but pretty good coverage overall and the ride down was very manageable. VR40 worked well for the climb. On our way down we ran into Bob (almost literally) – he was picking more rocks out on his way up. It was a very enjoyable day – perfect temperature and no wind at the top.

Confederation Park
Skiing still pretty good at Confederation today. Get out and try it before the thaw on Friday!
Faith in Xc skiers fulfilled. In response to a note left today on the gate about lost keys, Mark T. called this afternoon to tell me he had the keys I lost yesterday! Very very grateful.

West Bragg / Moose Loop. Nov. 8.
As others have said, I can confirm the trails at West Bragg are in fantastic early-season condition. Even though it’s all skier tracked, the skiing is really very good. We skied Crystal Line to Moose Loop. Didn’t touch a rock, nice and cool, good waxing conditions.https://photos.app.goo.gl/lN3DdyRegKbwFsh63

MLR – we had a very good early season ski on Moraine Lake road. Overall conditions were quite nice. A skiff (that’s about 1/2 cm) of overnight snow had covered the trail. The first 2km (to the Fairview Jct) are showing the wear and wobbles of heavy use, but there was no exposed pavement. Some sections of the next km (until past the Paradise Creek bridge) were a bit icy, or pavement was showing through the tracks – but these hazards were easily avoidable. After that, the tracks were great all the way to the turnaround point at the 9km mark (ok, maybe a bit wobbly, but still well defined). The return tracks were fairly fast. -10C to start, -6C at the end. No wind. Just a nice day for getting the ski legs back.

I skied the Moose Loop at West Bragg Creek today. Thank you for not laughing to the group of skiers who saw my spectacular wipe out on the steep hill down to the small bridge by the ice flow sign. To future skiers, this hill is in rough shape. Most of the hills were quite challenging today with a mess of frozen tracks all over them from weekend use. The trail will definitely improve with some grooming. Right now it’s good practice for backcountry ski touring.

Yes, big changes! Hardly recognized the place. Glad you got the grooming on Moose. Normally I like natural conditions but the hills were a mess in the morning. We also went counter clockwise. Always do on this loop.

West Bragg Creek today was very good. Blue sky, sunshine, mild temperature and absent wind made an enjoyable day. The snow was cold, dry and fast. I have used VR40. Generally expect skier set tracks and some grooming on Iron Springs and Elbow trails. Unfortunately some type of track vehicle ( K-car?) went over the groomed Iron Springs trail creating ruts and ridges which makes going downhill tricky. Snow coverage is good for the November and very few rocks, much better than in Kananaskis village last Saturday.

Confederation Park
Confederation Park holding up reasonably well with some thin spots over grass and asphalt paths. Delightful to be out on the trails in Calgary so early in the season.
Lost my car key/house key out on the trail. Although I’m sort of resigned to it being found next spring when it melts, if you happen to find it please contact Bob and he will contact me. Thanks

I set a track that wound about for nearly 2 km through the Birthplace Forest in Silver Springs last Friday. After 3 laps that day, and again on Saturday, the track had firmed up and it was skiing very nicely. I returned there this afternoon and while it was still OK- as I had expected much of the track had been obliterated by dogs and their humans.
Still- I can’t complain as we also take our pooch there, and it is especially enjoyable being able to step into the skis at my back gate, and slide down the lane into the park.

No grooming, however there are two sets of ski tracks almost all the way to the campground. Conditions are good (no stones) up to the campground. Gets a little trickier after that and only one set of tracks after the bridge. Snow was dry and fluffy! Fantastic trip. – 10 and sunny.

Thanks to Barb asking about MLR and to Bill’s response, three of us decided to opt for the easier place to ski (instead of Skogan Pass) and found good conditions exactly as described in Bill’s report. It is not good for skate skiers because of previous truck indents making centre lane very uneven and lots of people walking. Met a big group from Shell there around noon. Was sorely tempted to ski to the Lake but will the next time I am there. A little chilly coming down and get out of the tracks before km. 3 to avoid sanding your bases with pavement.

West Bragg Cr.
Mid-day classic ski through (mostly) fluffy skier set tracks thoughout south network (sundog-eastcrystal-loggers-mtnview/road-westcrystal). Snow on these trails is fast & light making for good early season workout for ones balance and uphill grip technique. Note that corduroy was just laid down on Iron Springs/Elbow at noon but obviously not ski-able as loft knocked out of snow, and base has yet to sinter . Used rock skis but didnt see not hit any earth or roots so was elated. Surprising not very many ppl had tracked said trails since snowstorm. GET OUT THERE! people.

Just did a lunchtime lap at Maple Ridge golf course in Calgary. Its skier set tracks, but holding up much better than I expected. A few places where the grass is showing through on the trail, but easy to go around if necessary. I just skied all the way around and didn’t get stopped in my tracks anywhere. Running faster than at the weekend now as well. Can’t beat these conditions in early November.

Did another lap at Maple Ridge today and still enjoyed it, but its seen heavy foot traffic in places now and there are more bare patches, had to switch tracks a few times. unlikely to be worthwhile for me after today with the forecast until the next snowfall. Still, it was great to get a few days in early in November.

Skied MLR yesterday and found it very good. Some isolated spots of pavement showing thru the tracks btwm km 1 to 3, after that it was like winter. Tracks were getting a liitle loose but overall it was good enough that I’m considering going back today.

Now I know why Helen skis this return trip from the Lake O’Hara end (starting uphill and ending downhill). I started at the Lake Louise end (easily enticed downhill) forgetting how long the return journey uphill would take! Furthermore, I was on light touring skis (with metal edges), which was overkill. Conditions are fast on a hard packed base. No need for rock skis… No lurking dangers!
Parks Canada groomers have not track set the Great Divide yet, but the base is now solid. Even the frost heaves in the pavement at the Lake Louise end are no longer a hazard and simply mild humps.
The only danger is the continuing bear activity. Once you have checked out these photos (with captions), I know you will remember to bring your Bear Spray:https://1drv.ms/a/s!AhVZXBE7vMV7iAvDhfvde_yOH1gO

Skogan Pass – Nov 5
The ski conditions on the Skogan Pass trail in the Ribbon Creek area were absolutely amazing for early November. Starting from the Nakiska ski area, we joined the Skogan Pass Trail at the Ruthie’s Trail junction. With the exception of a few rocks on the steepest hills, there was good snow coverage right from the start. Past the old Marmot Creek junction, it got even better, with beautiful track setting, wherever the trail was gentle enough to allow for that. The 670m descent back to the parking lot was fast, smooth and free of any surprises.https://photos.app.goo.gl/6lOgMVjMO9nIbvxI2

I am certain that yesterday was the earliest that I have ever skied set tracks to Skogan Pass. Kudos to Jeff! I noticed that some of the hills on upper Skogan that are usually double trackset were only single trackset- I actually prefer that on some of those long fast hills, especially when still getting the ski skills back in form. Upper Skogan also featured a lot of wolf tracks as did High Level- I hope Alf’s bunny gets it’s winter coat soon. We did the side loop of High Level and Sunburst on the return which were groomed only for the most part with good coverage, but with some encroaching willows waiting to snag a ski tip if one is not careful. Ooops!

It was great to get out for a first ski before remembrance day and at Kananaskis Village rather than enduring the long drive to Moraine Lake Road. Started at the Ribbon Creek parking lot and skied up Kovach to Terrace to the Village and back onto Kovach to Aspen, then down Kovach back to the parking lot. Conditions were decent with well rolled trails, and only a few spots of gravel.

I then decided to explore the 2.4 km upper Bill Milne trail from the Ribbon Creek bridge to the Village. This rolled trail was thin in a few spots but a great alternative route back up to the village. It parallels the road to the village on the south side as it climbs its way up at a good grade similar to the tramline trail at Lake Louise. To start, one needs to walk about 100 metres up the village road (from the turn off to the Ribbon Creek parking lot) crossing the Ribbon Creek bridge. The trail then starts on the left. It ends in the maze of parking lots not far from the village visitors centre. Finding the trail from the village centre is a bit of a challenge, however if you spot the faded green bike route sign then that is the beginning. The run back down was fun as it twisted and turned down the hill to the Ribbon Creek bridge.

Great Divide: started at noon from O’Hara end. Saw many bear paw prints (20 cms long) soon after I started. Enough snow to set a shallow but decent track, poles hitting pavement but just at both ends of The Divide. It has only been machine groomed (no corduroy) and not suitable for skate skiers. Enough snow to do my usual snowplow back down the curvy hill. Only one set of “twiglets” sticking up in my tracks the entire 22 kms. It was almost spooky having the Divide all to myself this afternoon and appreciated the added hour of daylight. Chuck found terrific looking snow on Cascade!

Thought you might like a trail report for the Lake O’Hara access road as of Saturday 4th Nov. There is no discernable set track yet but there is a sled compacted section, albeit thin, all the way to the lake. Caution is required between about the 4 and 6 km mark, where the gravel road below makes it’s presence known just enough that Nina and I have a couple of new scratches in our ski bases.

Did a short ski at the Village after doing a few runs down Nakiska. Snow is definitely better in West Bragg. Terrace was so full of foot prints it was hard to find ski tracks to follow. Skier tracked skiing is better in the fluffy snow at Bragg Creek.

Surprised to find so much snow on that first hill up the Cascade! And lots of people out enjoying it. Usually there is more snow once you get to the top, but today we found the reverse. In fact, there were rocks appearing at the higher elevations, and it seemed to get worse after the first bridge.
Check out the details (captions) here:https://1drv.ms/a/s!AhVZXBE7vMV7h33e_0F1P2XzvZoR

Jip and I skied Moose loop this afternoon, it was great , skier set and lots of fresh tracks still to be had, maybe that is one of the few advantages of having one dog power to track the softer stuff, offset by the endless sniffing and side excursions following critter tracks!
I’ve not been to WBC since last ski season, wow the new parking lot and facilities are fantastic, what a transformation.

I skied West Crystal / northern portion of Moose / Mountain Road / Loggers / East Crystal. The conditions are pretty decent, particularly considering how early it is in November. I only heard scrapping sounds 5 times in the entire journey and my skis sustained no visible signs of damage. I think that I was only the 3rd person to ski the west side of Mountain Road. It is fine. There is still open water in the creek at the northwest corner of Moose (just west of the junction with Tom Snow heading towards Dawson). The temperature at the start of the day (0900) was around -12. It had warmed to -8 upon my return (1330).

my rant for the day… I did not want to put this into my main trip report. There were several instances today of people stopping to urinate right on the ski trail (I saw the results, not the actual urinating). I wonder why some people find it so difficult to ski over to the edge of the ski trail away from the track when nature calls.

Moraine Lake Road: -12C 10:30 AM VR 30 was OK. Tracks are getting used alot and are showing the usage. A bit rattly up to Paradise Creek. As mentioned pavement shows through in spots. But great skiing non the less.
Trail was really quite quiet. Parking was barely out onto the highway.
Of course the walkers were out…….
Ran into Robin McKeever and Mark Arendz from the Para Nordic team. They skied further out on the road up top and found skiing was even better the further out one went. Poles not even hitting pavement..

I’m still reveling in the fact that it’s November 5th and I was skiing at WBC. Crystal line, Loggers, Sundog. Great early season conditions on skier set track. A few walkers post-holing trails close to the parking lot, but otherwise splendid conditions (so early!). Busy in the parking lot at 11:30 this morning but I didn’t run into anyone else 10 minutes into my trip. -12c with lovely cold snow. https://photos.app.goo.gl/4HQ6CgXcYRfGe1I32

The Parks Canada website is back up. It indicates that Great Divide and Upper Tramline have been “packed and graded.” I am inferring from “graded” that the snow has been smoothed, or groomed and the snowmobile tracks and ridges are gone. Barb Banff who was out later in the afternoon mentioned on her report that Great Divide was rolled, which leaves a corduroy surface.

First ski of the year from Ribbon creek up Hidden trail, part of Coal mine etc. Then over to Bill milne. Bring old poles, hit the pavement each time. Nice coverage and someone set my trail on Bill Milne before I got there this morning. Started around 10:30am in -20c which was fine. It warmed up a bit after a few hours. Just nice to be out.

Took Jip skijoring around Nakiska, great coverage, lots of good skiing to be had on all trails, could not go wrong, new ribbon creek I’m sure being the exception!
Only a few skiers around early afternoon all very happy to chat and share, one miserable, how come there always seems to one?
Highlight of the day was for Jip to meet a fellow husky pup ‘Solo’ on,y 3mths old and so cute!

Earliest ski day we’ve ever had. We went to West Bragg today and skied a short loop on West Crystal Line, Moose Link, and the Mountain Road. Conditions were phenomenal! Very good ski tracks to follow, no rocks, and plenty of soft fluffy snow for when your child wipes out. Great day. Warming hut was even open which was an unexpected bonus.

West Bragg Creek-skied West Crystal Line to Loggers Loop, Sundog Loop, connected to East Crystal Line and back to parking lot. Amazing! So much snow for early Nov.! Our dog was in powder heaven! Faint ski tracks in the snow but enough that we didn’t have to break trail. Only saw 1 other skier from a distance-on a Saturday afternoon!
Thanks for this wonderful website and everyone’s comments on ski conditions. Just moved back to Calgary after 9 years away and was so happy to find this awesome resource.

Maple Ridge golf course.
First, you have to pass the agility test by getting through the gates, which are chained close together. (Chain is waist high) . The course is skier track set, with grass showing through in a few places, but adequate snow except in one or two places, under the trees. Great to be able to get out in the city, so early in the season.

Mount Shark
Skied as far as Watridge Lake turnoff on Saturday afternoon. Conditions were OK along the flat sections but plenty of rocks just below the surface on all of the downhill sections. Caution or ski removal advised. Overall, it was a very enjoyable outing and remarkable to be on skis as early as November 4, but was somewhat disappointed that this area didn’t receive the snowfall that other areas received. Will wait for another storm cycle to hit Mount Shark before returning.

Kananaskis Village for our first ski of the season! The temperature at the start was a nippy -18C. that warmed up to -12C at 1:30 pm. We skied on Terrace and Aspen trails in the morning (thanks to Bob and others who set tracks yesterday), and saw no one else. After an indoor lunch at the Village Centre, we tried Lower Skogan from Ribbon Parking. We were the first ones up on fresh grooming once past the Nakiska Road. The snow coverage was good, with only a bit of needles/dirt/twigs poking through and easily avoided. We only went to the bottom of the Screamer and called it a day. More skiers on this section and 20 cars in the parking lot by the time we headed for home.

Amazing snow on cascade valley trail.
Hard to believe only me and one other skier is enjoying this early season gift.
Only went as far as the new gate but got a good ski in before work today.
-15 under a full moon and sunny morning.
have it skier track set in a few days ?

Better sit down for this one. We skied today. So did many others, I am sure. But we skied SANDY MCNABB!!! Now aren’t you glad I told you to sit down. It was beautiful! Must have received an easy 30 cm that managed to cover rocks, twigs, downed trees, and all the other culprits one has come to expect in this area. There had been others before us (left hand side up to Lookout, nothing on right where Loggers Loop is) so we did not have to break trail. There has been no grooming of any kind but it truly was a worthwhile trip. Sure hope the trails will be at least packed as what we now have will make a wonderful base for future snowfalls.

We (members of the Sheep River Ramblers) have been snow-shoeing the west end of the park Bluerock trail, West Sheep River Trail and WhiskeyJack Lake loop since the dump last week. Im happy that \Loggers got enough snow! Will try to get there tommorow with skis, after our snowshoe along the Gorge Creek trail. Thanks for letting us know and yes! when there is enough snow, those ski trails are perfection – provided snowshoers and dog walkers stay off of them!!!!

bob
we must have passed each other. classic
surprisingly good. not very busy and didn’t need rock skis!
talked to tracksetter, said they won’t likely be able to
fix the truck ruts until we get another 20cms.

FWIW I skied in Canmore Park & Confederations golf course on the afternoon of Nov 3. There were only skier set tracks. The amount of snow was adequate, though in some place the grass was visible at the bottom of the ski tracks.

Skogan Pass was in great shape yesterday. I skinned up from the Nakiska base area to where the skidoo trail meets the Skogan Pass trail and suddenly was greeted by a wide carpet of corduroy! Off with the skins and on with blue wax which was perfect up to Skogan Loop. Its easy to see and miss any areas with a few small rocks or stones. Tracks were set in places, which I had to avoid with my fat skis, but the run down was great fun. Jeff must have still been out grooming as my upticks were gone and it was beautifully soft on the way down.

Ribbon Creek-Nov 3
Yesterday’s report of grooming at the Ribbon Creek trails brought me out to one of my favourites in the area. The Coal Mine trail is an “out and back” that is largely a steady climb from the junction with Hidden trail. It’s a great side trip, if you are doing a loop that includes the post-flood Ribbon Creek XC ski trail. I had so much fun on the way down from the the old coal mine, that I went back up and did it again. Then I did a few powder runs on the reclaimed surface mine. The second run down the groomed trail was as much fun as the first.https://photos.app.goo.gl/Gvwe7DaV41o8rWjs1
I have my doubts about Nakiska’s claim of 45cm of new snow… I measured between 20 and 26 cm using an actual ruler. Still, that’s pretty good for November 3!

Canmore Nordic Centre
Len has been out grooming (still too thin for tracks) on the Bow Loop (aka Lower Banff Trail) out to the far end. A little thin in places so best to be on rock skis, but surprisingly great. I classic skied even without tracks as it would be a little thin for skating. Quick reminder that you need a day pass or an early season pass if you are skiing as the regular season pass doesn’t start until November 18th.

West Bragg Trip Report
Friday, 03Nov17, 1900 – Just got back from skiing West Bragg. Nothing has been groomed yet, so any tracks that exist are skier made. There’s anywhere from 30-40 cm of fresh snow (depending on tree cover). The Mountain road didn’t have tracks on it yet. We followed existing tracks through Chickadee Meadow and over the bridge to West Crystal Line. Followed that along to the Moose Connector junction. At that point the tracks cut south to continue on the southern West Crystal Line. We broke the trail along the Moose Connector to the Mountain Road, and then continued breaking the trail west along Mountain Road to just after the gully. At that point we turned around and retraced our steps. The snow was light but deep and you can see lots of deer and moose tracks. Temperature was -15 and we saw only one person the whole time. It was a great way to end the day!

I followed the track of this recent snowstorm and headed to west Bragg Creek trails. I skied West Crystal Line to Loggers Loop and down Sundog back to parking lot. There was at least 40cm and I didn’t hit one rock! It’s was skier set, I did some of the first tracks but the snow was cold and light. A very good early season ski. I stopped at the incredible “Heart of Bragg Creek” coffee shop where I was met with incredibly hospitality and organic baked goods, coffee and chai and hot soups! The cafe is right across from the Bragg Creek Mall. Well worth the stop.https://www.dropbox.com/sh/shk86sk96j7ak2s/AABU9ZNZiXAQ7WY3aB6cbzk-a?dl=0

Ended last season with Bill Milne Trail in a March full moon, so decided to ski it both directions, starting at Golf Course. Snow seemed over 10 cms. on bridge banisters; more plentiful at Ribbon end. Minus 13 so had lunch in car then drove to Wedge Pond. Great snow on Wedge Connector to bridge- ski tips disappeared breaking trail and skies turned a beautiful blue. Thought I might run into Jeff but he is a busy man packing everything down. Besides hearing poles hitting pavement, the only other sounds were birds squaking heading south. Always good to get first ski done, as forgot many items in pack and erred on wrong wax.

In Kimberley visiting family and lucky I brought my skis!!!! Winter wonderland here! Nice early season classic track on good skis. Skating lane will freeze in tonight. Full size groomer was heading out at 4PM.

personal ,I try to start the season when the snow is fantastic !!
today was another one of those days this season.:
started early afternoon today MLR .solid coverage ,machine groomed till 2/3 way up ,then machine tracked till turn-a-round.
dusting of snow all day and -10 snow.
checked on cascade.
parks still has road open and they plowed it !!more than enough for skiing but did not ski up as there was only one nice set of skier track set heading up.
instead skied Nordic centre for some of the best skier track set night skiing I have ever done on Banff trail !
the lights where even on for the loop !
I see a full moon goat creek ski fun run coming soon…..

It always amazes me on how many people will get out chronologically (i.e., by a certain date) rather than objectively ( is there enough snow?), not that I have been out yet! It must be nice being close to the action, Chuck. Yes, I am jealous!

Oh Ye of Little Faith… where was everyone today?
Bob advised us that snow was on the way… so we headed back to the MLR.
Temperatures stayed steady at minus 3 all day. With about 4 cms of snow overnight (on top of the previous base), these four photos describe the day:https://1drv.ms/a/s!AhVZXBE7vMV7h3KbhXEy_enXDK6l
Coverage is thin until the first bridge at 2.6 km, but after that there is plenty of snow. Just be careful in the regular sun affected spots.
Martin Jones thought that I would be leading the charge… but obviously Jeannette enjoyed taking that role from me!